Neurospaston
by bumbleboxer
Summary: Back in my day we could destroy the world WITHOUT a GameShark.
1. Chapter 1

_Trying to keep author's notes to a minimum and failing here. For any nagging suspicions regarding this story, please see my profile._

Dani came from a family of accomplished pokémon trainers: her older sister, both parents, three of her grandparents, and numerous other relatives that she didn't always care to mention because that alone was enough to impress.

She was an optimistic and cheerful sort of girl, the kind who knew she was capable of anything she applied herself to.

She was also the type to trust her gut instinct rather than heavily plan things in advance, as she wasn't afraid of surprises. Presently, the one pokémon she knew she'd have on her team was the totodile she was to receive the following day.

She was quite an outgoing person with many friends, and always gave everyone a fair chance, knowing that everyone had some good to them.

She's not important.

She might have been briefly interested to know that her exact opposite, a young boy named Tavis, was currently staying in the same pokémon center as she was, but her existence would have nothing to do with the strange force that would soon show itself in the country of Ayun.

The boy in question was presently a nervous wreck, and would probably have been in tears if not for his nagging suspicion that there were cameras hidden somewhere in the flat, white walls of his room. Instead, he chose to manage his stress by way of pacing. Although in the small room he was confined to, that was really more like turning in a circle than anything else.

The source of his problem just happened to be sharing the limited space with Tavis, but taking up far less of it. A larger-than-average farfetch'd was seated at the foot of the twin bed, head turned with a large bill buried in his own dull brown plumage. He had long ago been hypnotized into a deep sleep by the repetitive motions of the human, who couldn't help but feel jealous of the bird's blissful state.

Tavis finally stopped to look at the digital clock on a nightstand, the only furnishings aside from a bed and lamp. It was approaching seven p.m. The two hours he had spent walking had gotten him nowhere, and he needed to come up with a plan before the next morning.

Finally feeling burned out, he sighed and let himself collapse onto the bed, jarring the duck pokémon enough to awaken him. Tavis watched as one of his black eyes opened, sleepily peered at him, and closed again while he adjusted the dry stick tucked beneath his wing. He wiped the uncooperative dark brown hair out of his own eyes before reaching over to the bird and gently scratching his neck under the feathers.

"What am I gonna do with you, Arree?" he sighed again.

Letting his own eyes close for just a moment, he realized then how much he just wanted to go to bed after the long day; coming halfway across the region by boat and bus had shown itself to be far more tiring than it sounded. Well, what harm could a quick rest do? Nervous as he was, he'd never fall asleep after just a few minutes.

Someone's fist pounded into the door. Tavis had jumped into a sitting position before telling himself to. He held his breath, as if whoever was outside could hear him breathing.

_Okay_, he thought, _maybe it's just someone checking to see if the room is occupied. Then I won't have to open the door or anything._ He made his presence known with a sheepish call. "Yeah?"

Whoever it was said something he couldn't hear clearly, followed by "open up!"

_Crap!_ "Er- just a second!"

Looking toward Arree, who was now glaring in the direction of the door with his feathers flattened against his body, Tavis could practically read his thoughts: 'The stupid world isn't going to let me sleep today.' And that made him feel worse for what he was about to do.

Within five seconds, Arree had been picked up and shoved under the bed, and was squawking angrily. Too loudly. Tavis put less than a second of thought into it before sincerely apologizing to Arree and stuffing a blanket and pillow under there as well.

He stood up, shook his head, cautiously stepped toward the door and opened it as narrowly as he thought he could get away with. On the other side, standing about a foot taller than Tavis was an athletic, high-school-aged boy whose blonde hair barely stuck out from under a blue baseball cap. Tavis missed the friendly smile on the guy's face, noticing instead the confident look in his blue eyes which his own mind interpreted as something to make him wary.

"Hey, I'm Karick," he announced, presenting his hand for a greeting. Tavis reluctantly accepted this, but tensed a bit with the guy's firm handshake.

"Uh, hi?" he stuttered out, quickly returning his hand to its previous position on the door. Apparently he was supposed to know what was going on. Karick obviously hadn't been expecting this; his face momentarily reminded Tavis of a stage actor who hadn't rehearsed a scene.

"...Your traveling buddy," he said finally, still through a smile.

Tavis blinked.

A slight look of doubt formed in Karick's eyes. He quickly glanced to the room number next to the door, then back to Tavis. "You're, eh, Tracy something, right?"

Ah. Just a mistake. Tavis shook his head for a somewhat delayed response. He proceeded to push the door shut, but unfortunately wasn't quick enough as Karick said "Wait, wait," while digging through one of his pockets. And stupidly, he waited.

"Here!" The guy presented a torn piece of paper, looked at it, and said something that made Tavis flinch. "Is it Tahvis?"

"Tay-vis." Mentally slapping himself as the name escaped, he realized that he had been sucked further into conversation he couldn't afford right now. He realized only after it was too late that he had missed an opportunity; he could have said no, that wasn't his name, and would technically have been telling the truth. But his name was mispronounced so often that, even though he wasn't one to want others to remember it, it had become quite annoying and correcting it had become an automatic response.

The older boy grinned again. "Alright, awesome! C'mon, we need to go sign some junk down in the lobby, so let's get that over with-"

"What- what are you talking about?" Despite not yet feeling the courage to speak in complete sentences, the overwhelming sense that something was very wrong forced Tavis to come up with one.

Karick paused, the grin finally vanishing from his face as sudden understanding dawned on him.

"You do know about the traveling buddy thing, right?

The warning light in his mind flared up again. Tavis knew what it was. He was about to be on the receiving end of some sort of prank.

But he wasn't entirely sure, and didn't want to come off as paranoid...

"Are you messing with me?"_ Or do come off as paranoid, whatever... _Oh well. It was out now.

"Nope. Didn't they tell you about it at your school?" Karick picked up on his confusion. "Or at least they would have sent you something in the mail- look, just come sign this stuff and I'll explain it all."

And what a perfect time for Tavis to hear Arree's squawking from behind, no longer muffled by the blanket.

"I can't, I'm kinda busy right now," he said, unsuccessfully trying to hide the panic in his voice and starting to push the door shut again.

It didn't matter anymore, he realized; time seemed to slow down when he heard the bird flapping his wings, taking off from the ground and coming straight at him. He turned around completely just in time to be tackled at full force by the irate farfetch'd, which knocked him into the wall and allowed the door to open just wide enough for Karick to see that he had something to hide.

"What the-" Karick's tone became sharper. "Hey, open this door."

Tavis took a second to recollect himself, his eyes going huge, before making a move to slam the door shut, as if that would accomplish anything. That was stopped anyway, by Karick's foot in the doorway. Karick then started to push it, but only enough to keep it open - odd, since (judging by appearance) he could have overpowered Tavis without much effort.

"Open this door," he repeated in a low voice, still making it clear that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, "I don't wanna have to get anyone else involved." But when even that caught the attention of a passing girl, Tavis realized that he really didn't need any more eyes on him and suddenly pulled Karick inside his room by the sleeve, slamming the door behind him.

The small room became way less comfortable with another person inside, and almost unbearable with the silence between them that only lasted about two seconds but felt immeasurably longer. Arree wasn't a secret anymore, that was for sure. Tavis could barely bring himself to look up at Karick and had no idea what he was going to say. Luckily, he didn't have to speak up.

"So, you wanna explain the farfetch'd?" Although looking at the bird now, it had calmed down, retrieved its stick, and was sitting quietly on the bed again with only an angered glare at the two humans.

Tavis still wouldn't look Karick in the eye. After what might've been ten seconds, or maybe a whole minute, he was able to speak up.

"He's... mine. I just brought him with me, that's all. I've had him for years, I-" He sat on the bed next to Arree, held out his shaking arm in front of the farfetch'd to allow him to step up and perch on it. Arree rolled his eyes a little before doing so, apparently giving up on getting any more sleep. Tavis continued. "His name is Arree. He's pretty much my best friend."

Karick, however, still had his arms crossed with a definite look of skepticism about him. "Okay, so, why'd he attack you?"

"I shoved him under the bed," Tavis quickly answered.

"...That's nice."

"No, no, you knocked on the door and I just hid him there 'cause-" he stopped for a second, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath while he tried to get his thoughts straight, but unable to take his mind away from the fact that Karick was staring at him the whole time. Why was this happening? Everything would be fine right now if that jerk and whatever stupid friends he had waiting outside hadn't targeted him for some joke, whatever it was going to be...

He wouldn't buy into it, but he still wanted to know where it was going.

"What were you talking about before? Traveling... buddy?" Ugh, that title was lame enough to nearly make him shudder.

Karick was silent for a second, before leaning back against the wall, deciding to set the matter of the Pokémon in the room aside, for now.

"You haven't heard about it at all?" Tavis shook his head. "Alright," he continued, "it's this new trial program they started this year. Basically, trainers who are just starting out have to travel with someone with more experience for a while, unless their parents have said that they're okay without one; guess yours didn't."

He had never heard a word about this from his mother. He wondered if she simply didn't say anything to him because she knew he'd argue against having to pair up with some stranger. His mom never did seem to think he was that capable-

Wait, did he actually believe all that for a second?

"And they were supposed to have told you about it in school, too, I think. Or were you home-schooled or something?"

He certainly wouldn't have heard about it that way, either. But, how could Karick have known that he hadn't been in school this past year?

Tavis slowly shook his head, not quite in response to Karick's question.

"Huh," was all Karick could get out after a moment of thought. "Well... at least you should have read about it in the book you were supposed to get when you checked in here. That one." He pointed to the small booklet that was lying next on the opposite corner of the bed. Placing Arree back on the mattress, he grabbed the book and looked at it. He had started reading it, out of complete boredom, until he stumbled upon a certain bit of information that he realized was going to be a problem, and unable to concentrate on reading further, had spent a couple of hours trying to come up with a solution for it.

Karick couldn't possibly have known that. Unless there really were hidden cameras around.

He flipped through the rest of the booklet, passing an introduction, information on the Ayun league, a small map, pokémon center information, short facts about the three types of starter pokémon and the four species of each that would be given out tomorrow - that was where he had stopped - and came across a couple of pages in the very back with the heading "Traveling Buddies." They were cheaply tacked on, meaning that the rest of these books had likely been recycled from the previous year.

No, it was a very well-done prank. One that he would have respected if not for the fact that he was in the middle of it.

It hit him at once, the end-all reason why this couldn't be a trick: he never saw those coming until it was too late. This was going to change everything, ruin it all... "Look, can you just leave? Please?" he managed to breathe out after a while.

"No, no. Not that easy. See, I'm still not clear on, eh..." he motioned to Arree, trying to remember his name for a few seconds before giving up. "The farfetch'd-"

"I just told you, I brought him here!" Tavis nearly shouted, finally letting some of his frustration out.

"I _mean_, why you were trying so hard to hide him." Karick seemed annoyed with the outburst.

Well, now Tavis was stuck. He wondered just for a second if he could come up with a lie, but decided against it. Tavis didn't lie often, although this wasn't always based on morality as much as it was the feeling that anyone older than him could see through any altered truth he could dish out. Here, the truth could get him into just as much trouble. But the latter option was one step closer to getting out of all this, plus he was too tired to think of anything else believable, and it didn't matter anyway because everything was messed up forever now.

"Okay, it's like this..." He realized that he was still holding onto the book, the pages now warped and torn from having been in his hands while he was nervous. "I didn't, uh... it said in this thing you can't get a starter if you're already carrying a pokémon or have one registered, but I didn't know that before I read this, and I couldn't leave Arree at home, because he acts pretty weird when I'm not around for a long time."

'Pretty weird' was something of an understatement - just weeks ago, he had left his house alone just to spend a night outside to get himself more prepared. When he returned the next day, several patches of Arree's feathers had vanished and his exhausted mother reported that she had spent the better part of the night watching the duck to make sure he didn't chew his own wings off. That was when Tavis had first learned the term 'separation anxiety', and when the decision to take Arree along was set in stone.

One wouldn't have guessed it by the way Arree looked now, however, thanks to a pokémon's ability to regrow feathers or fur in a remarkably short time. It was a trait quite useful for birds in particular, as they were likely to lose flight feathers during battle. But that was one thing Arree himself wouldn't have to worry about.

"And he won't battle either, so even if I did catch another Pokémon by myself, I still wouldn't really have a- a chance against everyone else who's just starting out. I was trying to think of what to do when you came here." Tavis looked back up to Karick, searching for any signs of disapproval. He didn't see any, but didn't get his hopes up yet.

Karick nodded absent-mindedly while looking Arree over, seemingly evaluating him for the story's credibility. Then he unfolded his arms to stick his thumbs in his pockets. The cold, judgmental look about him vanished. "I think I can help you out there. Since I have to go with you to pick up your starter tomorrow, I can't just watch him, but I can catch him in a pokéball and release... what?"

Tavis hadn't uttered a word in disagreement, but Karick could probably tell just by looking at him that he wasn't about to trust Karick that far.

"Aw, come on. Look, no offense, kid, but any one of my pokémon could eat him whole. I'm not going to take off with him."

"I didn't even say that!" Having his thoughts read sure wasn't pleasant. "But I can figure something out on my own. I just need some more time." Speaking of time... the clock read 7:06. This had all happened in five minutes.

Karick stood up straight again.

"Alright, well, long as we're not doing anything, we still have to go outside and sign stuff. Let's go do that now."

"Uh, I can't," Tavis replied immediately, pointing to Arree who was still awake and showing dull interest in the humans' exchanges.

"You can't leave him here for five minutes?"

"Not unless you wanna come back to the window broken, and the carpet ripped up, and like, half the bed eaten."

"Someone has some serious problems..." Karick muttered to himself. Before Tavis could ask if he meant him or his farfetch'd, Karick continued. "Take him with you."

"What? How?"

"I don't know, however you usually take him places? Look, just trust me."

Tavis snorted, not entirely on purpose. Expecting him to do something like that, was Karick dense?

"Okay, how about this: Take him with you or I'll tell you have him."

Tavis looked as if Karick had just threatened to shoot him. "You- wouldn't really do that, would you?" he quietly asked after a stunned moment.

"Wanna find out?"

As they walked through the pokémon center's hallways, Tavis held the deeply confused Arree close to his chest, in an attempt to keep him somewhat concealed. Arree was wide awake now, scanning the (thankfully empty) area and occasionally looking up toward his distressed human, seemingly asking him what was going on. Tavis smiled at him half-heartedly and reassuringly scratched him behind the crest.

Finally, they stopped in front of an elevator that was on the second floor and apparently in use, but being on the third floor themselves, they didn't have to wait long before it arrived. Much to Tavis's dismay, two young girls exited the elevator as it opened up, and as expected, stopped their conversation and turned their attention to the Pokémon upon sight.

"Aww, that farfetch'd is so cute!" squeaked a brown-haired girl in a voice much higher that the one she had just been speaking in.

Tavis felt himself go red at this, oh god, he was going to get caught, why couldn't they have left fifteen seconds later when they wouldn't have had to-

"Thanks," Karick cut in, making Tavis turn his head. Why'd he say that? For now he was in the clear, as the two turned and walked the way he had come from, apparently searching for their rooms. They entered the elevator, and as the doors closed, Tavis was going to ask Karick about what he had said. But, as he should have expected by now, Karick spoke before he had the chance.

"Okay, now I got an idea."

"Wait, you dragged me out here when you didn't have a plan?"

"I never said I had one right then..."

"Then where does all that 'just trust me' stuff come in?" Tavis demanded in disbelief.

Karick shrugged, smirking at the younger boy's atrocious mimic of his voice. "I didn't let you down, did I?"

"What if you did?"

"Be quiet and listen to me for a-" The elevator came to a halt, making Arree jump and Karick stop mid sentence. The doors opened again with a taunting _ding!_, revealing the crowded lobby of the center.

"...second."

They exited to make room for another boy who needed to get in, and Tavis just stood there stupidly for a second before flinching when Karick prodded him on the shoulder. He started toward the service counter, Karick still in the lead, but staying close enough to make sure Tavis wasn't trailing too far behind. Arree's feathers were flattened once more, meaning he and his human shared the feeling that there were too many people around.

The receptionist looked considerably more tired out than she had been when Tavis had gotten his room key from her, but was still trying to keep a pleasant front (the motivation for this being that she had less than an hour until her shift was over). She pushed her black hair out of her face for probably the millionth time as two boys, one close to Tavis's age and one a little older, moved out of the line.

"Can I help you?" She asked with polite yet false cheer.

"Hey, could we get the, eh..." Karick snapped his fingers next to his head a few times, as if the words he was trying to come up with would appear suddenly.

The receptionist interrupted. "Trainer Agreement forms?" She placed a sheet of paper on the desk between them without waiting for confirmation.

"Yeah, thanks."

Karick began to skim over the page while Tavis tried unsuccessfully to get a good look at it. After a moment, the receptionist addressed him.

"Is that your first pokémon?"

Curse that lightning-speed elevator...

"Farfetch'd?" Karick asked, barely glancing up from the paper. "Nah, he's mine. He's hangin' out with Tavis here for the day." He picked up a pen that was attached to the desk and scribbled his name down before sliding the paper and pen over to Tavis.

That was his plan? Oh, no. The receptionist had seen him with Arree earlier, and any hope of her not recognizing him was crushed under the thoughtful expression on her face while she... _stared_ at him.

Then she smiled again.

"I'll just need you to read the top paragraph and sign here, please." She pointed to the area on the paper in question, which he had forgotten existed.

Tavis blinked in disbelief, then glanced toward Karick who was now trying to hide the satisfied grin on his face. Did she really not remember him, or was she just too tired to bother? It was some amazing luck either way.

The paragraph was titled _New Trainer Agreement_ and was shorter than the one below it, which Karick had signed. By skimming through it he found that the basics were that he was to stay with Karick for twenty-one days, that they were required to "check in" regularly during that time, and... to report any of Karick's abuse of the rules as soon as possible. This made him want to look over what Karick had signed to as well, but the line behind him was growing steadily and that woman just kept _smiling_...

He transferred Arree to his shoulder to free his right hand, signed and printed his name and hesitantly passed it back over the counter. The receptionist took it with a "Thank you," turned to a computer and took a few seconds to type something up. "Okay... and you're all set! Good luck!"

"Thanks," Karick said, stepping away from the counter with a wave. He looked back to Tavis. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Tavis followed him, then quickly turned around and said his own thanks to the woman. He went back to Karick and said quietly, "that was insanely lucky."

Karick chuckled. "Not really. Come on, nobody's going to call you out for carrying him around with you. Now I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry. Whaddaya say we go find somewhere to eat?"

Now that he thought about it, Tavis hadn't eaten since before he arrived in this city, and neither had Arree. Of course, what he had packed for Arree was still upstairs, in his backpack, but after all the mistreatment the bird had received that day, Tavis supposed he deserved something extra.

Karick knew of an outdoor fast food joint that he had gone to during a previous visit through the city. It wasn't a particularly classy place, but at least Arree was able to join them. The farfetch'd was presently scattering a tray of tortilla chips around the cleanest table they were able to find.

"You let him eat like that all the time?" Karick asked, failing in trying to keep his tone neutral.

"No, it's just that he's been halfway across the country today and doesn't really know what's going on, so I don't think he's happy about it. I shouldn't even be giving him this, he's supposed to be on a diet anyway." It hit him only then how wrong the scene must have been from an outside perspective – there he was, sitting in front of an order of chicken strips while his own bird gorged on chips not three feet away.

"So, long as we're stuck with each other for the next three weeks, we may as well get to know each other. You excited about being a trainer?"

"Yeah, I guess." Although one of the perks Tavis found in the idea was being able to spend some time on his own... "Guess you've been a trainer for a while?"

"Yup! Five years now. Finally got my eighth badge last year, right before the Ayun League tournaments started. I didn't even place, though. Would have, if I'd just used Rhydon against that nidoking..." he stopped, having derailed and lost track of the original question.

"Are you getting paid for this or something?" Tavis asked. Of course he was benefiting from it somehow, why else would he be doing it?

"No, it's volunteer work. I've only been training around home for a long time now, so it was motivation to get back out here. "

Well, that made sense... sort of. "Where do you live?" he asked. Tavis didn't particularly care for the answer, but it was either ask or be asked now, and he was less comfortable with the latter.

"Westopolis, right on the coast. I knew our gym leader's sister in school," he bragged. "What about you?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't know her..."

"Where you _from_, dork?"

"Oh! Um, Zephyr."

Karick then sat up straight, reaching into his pocket for something. "I've been there," he said, which wasn't surprising; he sounded like had been all over Ayun. What he did next, however, was completely unexpected. He presented a pokéball and dropped it next to himself. The red and white halves split apart on impact with the seat, the bright silvery flash taking Arree by surprise and making him catapult himself into Tavis. The shape of the pokémon inside emerged.

The light soon faded, showing the slick blue skin of the creature's slouching otter-like form. The long tail that made up half its body length ended in a light mud-colored fluke and hung limply over the bench. From behind its small, pointed ears sprouted what looked like two strands of seaweed that were at least the length of its torso. Its eyes, pearly and white, remained blank. Anyone unfamiliar with this pokémon would be hard-pressed to say there was a shred of life in its body. Tavis knew better. Plemort, the water- and ghost-type, was a pokémon that was found only around Zephyr's marshes and swamps, and depended on its corpse facade to lure its prey - scavengers - close.

As a trained member of its species, and fortunately for Arree, the one across the table had been conditioned off of live meals for the most part. He was still a carnivore though, and presently a hungry one - he made this known by resting his chin on the table with his nose pointed to what remained of Karick's hamburger, while emitting a low moaning sound.

"Yeah, nice to see you too, buddy," Karick muttered to Plemort as he tore a piece off a shred of beef (knowing that anything else he offered would be ignored) and placed it in front of the pokémon. Plemort snapped it up when his trainer's hand was no more than two inches away, showing off his sharp canines as he did so. Tavis noted that Karick didn't even jump.

Arree, who was no stranger to this Pokémon himself, watched in terror from the safety of Tavis's arms. It was hard to tell if he was hissing or breathing very hard. Tavis scratched his neck again and told him, "It's okay, Arree," for the hundredth time that day.

Karick took note of the duck's reaction (it was hard to miss) and held the empty pokéball up next to Plemort, who had made quick work of his snack and was running his tongue over his teeth - for a second he appeared to be taunting Arree.

"I'll take you out again later," Karick told his Pokémon while patting it on the back with his free hand. "Return."

Plemort showed no sign of protest. Seemingly just by willing himself to do so, his body transformed into a kind of red glowing energy which was then sucked back into the ball. In a second, Plemort's seat was empty (and the two kids who had gathered to get a closer look at him quietly returned to their business).

Arree remained alarmed, however, and while he had discontinued his efforts to struggle away, he was still panting and looking up at Tavis with wide eyes. Tavis couldn't tell if he wanted to go back inside or just to be comforted. A horrible sinking feeling overtook him and he was instantly sorry for bringing Arree out with him in the first place. But really, what other choice did he have?

"Yeah, Plemort acts like a jerk sometimes, but he knows what he's not allowed to do," Karick said after a while. "Mostly. Now, um..."

Tavis looked up again to find that Karick's attention was on Arree.

"If you really have to take him with you, you have to get him a pokéball, no questions asked. Before we leave town."

That reminded Tavis of the other problem he would face before leaving tomorrow. He revisited the question of just what to do about Arree, looking upward as he thought, and found that the night sky was blocked by a big, tacky plastic umbrella that stuck up from the center of their table. The stars weren't that easy to see anyway, in this more-than-sufficiently-lit city...

He was only distracting himself. He wouldn't come up with a way to fix this in a million years, much less twelve hours. There was one option left: ask for Karick's help. If he could bring himself to.

"Karick, you remember earlier, when you said..." Tavis tried to remember exactly what it was Karick had said while they were still in the pokémon center. And the conversation around it. Or maybe that was just a way of stalling until his lungs, frozen with admitting defeat, were limbered up, but he knew that would never happen. "... that you'd hold onto Arree while I got my starter tomorrow. Were you serious?"

Karick, while not exactly shocked by the question, raised an eyebrow in mild amusement. "You trust me now?"

"No, but I know you won't steal him now because he's a fat wuss."

"Just like I said before."

"Hey!"

Having finished his meal (while Tavis was barely halfway through his own), Karick balled up the leftover trash and set it aside. "You wanna get it out of the way now? I have some spare pokéballs in my room."

Tavis didn't at all like the idea of handing Arree over to Karick for the whole night. "How about tomorrow morning instead? They don't start handing out the starters until nine, and the building's close to the pokémon center."

"Suit yourself, just don't blame me if you get there late and have to wait in line for hours."

"Don't you have to come with me for that?"

"Yeah, but I can keep myself busy with showing off my awesome team to the newbies and being the biggest inspiration to the coming wave of supertrainers. You have fun standing in line."

Tavis almost snickered at this, then scolded himself; Karick wasn't funny, he was a jerk and didn't deserve a laugh for that. Unfortunately, Karick had caught him, and although he didn't say anything, the satisfied grin he wore and the taunting glint returning to his eye was enough recognition of his victory.

"So I'll come by your room tomorrow at eight," Karick went on. "That's more than enough time."

They'd need it, Tavis thought, looking back to Arree. Getting the fat wuss to go along with it would be the hard part.

i-i-i-i-i

_Chapter two is complete. Expect it within a few days._


	2. Chapter 2

It was a little past eight AM, and Tavis had been up for an hour and a half. Having spent a good portion of the night turning everything over in his head, and still finding himself quite uncomfortable with the plans concerning Arree, he made a small amendment to the idea. To pull it off, he had gotten up a little earlier that morning and gone out to the local pokémart.

He sat on the bed now, still somewhat bleary and absent-mindedly tossing his newest purchase between both hands, while he watched his farfetch'd peck at his breakfast in the corner; The bird had no idea what was about to happen to him.

This was ridiculous, Tavis thought. What should have taken shotgun in his mind was the fact that he would be starting his pokémon journey in mere hours, not that his pokémon was about to be caught by some stranger he was supposed to travel with for three weeks, which Tavis still wasn't convinced was really happening anyway. Maybe not, he hoped desperately. According to his memory, Karick was supposed to have shown up about ten minutes ago, and there was still no sign of him.

Then someone knocked at the door, recognizably in Karick's method of abrupt pounding, and Tavis snorted as he got up and let him in.

"Morning!" Karick exclaimed, with the kind of wide smile that was expressly forbidden to wear before nine AM or so.

Oh, god, you're a morning person too? Tavis wanted to say, but to avoid the risk of pushing his luck too far, didn't. Instead he gave him a civil greeting and got straight to the point. "Hi, Karick. Hey, do you have your Pokédex on you?"

"Yeah, why?"

Tavis shut the door before presenting a minimized pokéball that was mostly emerald in coloring, but with two diagonally crossed white bands on the top half, one appearing to overlap the other. "Can you use this one on Arree?"

Karick stared at it for a second. "A pro-tem ball?" he asked, a trace of disbelief in his voice.

The pro-tem ball could catch any pokémon, whether or not it was already registered to a trainer, but it was a one-time use device; after the pokémon was released for the first time, the ball was useless on it. It was intended to transport a trained pokémon that was disabled and lost, to a safe place such as a pokémon center, where its trainer could be contacted.

While they were primarily used by those in the medical field and law enforcement, it wasn't unheard of for a trainer to keep one handy should such a situation arise. This ball could be tracked, like any other, to prevent theft. Thus, also like any other ball, it had to be registered to a trainer before becoming usable; this could be done simply, with the user's Pokedex.

Karick sighed. "If you stop flipping out about this, yes." He snatched the ball from Tavis, then pulled a flat electronic device from his pocket and flipped it open. His Pokédex was a metallic orange color and appeared fairly new. He hit a few buttons, the process more than familiar to him by now, and held the ball in front of the scanner on top of the 'Dex for no more than a second.

"Done," he said, pocketing his Pokédex again, and turned to Arree, who didn't stop eating but kept a wary eye on Karick. "Now, I hope you know," he continued, "that I wasn't about to waste a lot of pokéballs on this." With his free hand, he reached down to the right side of his belt, on which an almost full set of five occupied balls were clipped. He selected the second one from the right. "So I brought a friend with me."

Tavis jumped at this, not having considered that far ahead. "What are you going to do? That's not your plemort, is it?" He wanted to protest, but realized that Karick was right; There was no way to make Arree stay inside a pokéball on his own accord.

"Don't worry, it's not." Karick smirked before nonchalantly letting the ball fall from his hand. Tavis began to wonder if this was primarily an attempt to show off more of his team members, before his thoughts scattered - the ball exploded upon hitting the carpet, creating the familiar shower of light and a sound that had always been a little too loud for Tavis's taste.

Arree batted his wings once and took a step back; The last time this had happened, he had narrowly escaped death by the fangs of a Plemort.

But something else emerged from the pokéball this time, standing on two legs, reaching about four feet in height. Its lower body was green, while its upper half and long tail were a tan color. The claws on its hands and feet were a threatening blood red, but while it appeared to lack arms, they were in fact tucked under the frilled collar on its neck. Its grass-typing was made obvious by the large, mushroom-like growth that covered its head like an umbrella, and the toxic seed clusters that ended its tail.

In contrast to Plemort, the breloom appeared to be in high spirits upon being released; he bounced in place a bit as he scanned the area, trying to determine if he had been sent out for a battle. Once he spotted the farfetch'd, he took a battle stance with his claws raised and awaited confirmation from his trainer.

"Easy there, killer," Karick told him. Breloom relaxed, getting the idea from his tone rather than the literal meaning of the words. Tavis thought he heard him whine a little, this creature seemed unsettlingly eager to attack the meek little bird backed into a corner.

"You may wanna get out of the way," Karick said to Tavis while taking a step back himself. This was a bad choice of words.

"What the heck are you doing?" Tavis started to argue, still without budging.

Karick sighed and pulled the younger boy back by the sleeve. "Breloom," he continued in a calm voice, so as not to get the mushroom pokémon riled up again, "use spore."

Breloom had, in the few moments since his trainer last addressed him, leaned down so that his face was at Arree's level. He may even have been about to introduce himself - but a battle, it seemed, was more appealing, and he squealed gleefully before swinging his powerful tail around, aimed straight at Arree.

The duck squawked and flinched in anticipation of a full-force bludgeoning. It never came; all he felt was the great creature's tail slam into the ground inches before him. For a second after he willed himself to open his eyes, he thought that the breloom had missed its target.

Other than why does my beak feel so heavy, that was his last conscious thought.

Karick waited a moment for the cloud of little gold-colored puffs to disperse before stepping into the area, keeping his nose covered for good measure, and dropping the pro-tem ball onto the collapsed farfetch'd. Tavis watched in horror, not just from the previous ten seconds but mostly from seeing his only pokémon transmuted into red energy and being sucked into an orb no bigger than a baseball. The pokéball landed next to Karick's foot and sat motionless.

Then it jerked to the side, showing the button on the front of the ball that still glowed gently, meaning that the process wasn't complete just yet and that Arree could still break out. Even if a pokémon was unconscious, Tavis recalled from school, it could still fight against being contained in a ball, struggling unconsciously as if it were in a nightmare. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but Tavis also reminded himself that after the capture was made final, the pokémon's mind would go into a sort of dream-like state for as long as it was within the ball.

Arree submitted to this quickly; the ball locked itself shut with an audible ping! while the light on the button faded. Breloom was the one to pick it up and excitedly hand what he believed to contain a new team member to Karick; evidently this hadn't been the first time he had assisted in a pokémon capture, and with a sleep-inducing technique like that, it wasn't surprising.

"Good job, buddy," Karick congratulated Breloom, patting him on the shoulder before turning to Tavis and handing the minimized pro-tem ball back to him. Tavis looked down at it and an odd feeling came over him. It was just as light as it had been before, and the only heat on it had come from his own hand in the first place. But it had changed somehow; He could really feel the energy of a living being inside of it. In a way, it felt like he was holding onto Arree's egg again.

It occurred to him then that, since Karick almost certainly had a full team by now, the ball in his palm should have been transported to PC storage upon Arree's capture. Unless, of course, Karick had deposited one of his own Pokémon beforehand. Had he actually put that much planning into this? Either way, Tavis supposed he should thank Karick for his help.

"What is it?" He heard Karick ask. Tavis wondered what he meant before he looked up and saw that he wasn't the one being addressed.

Breloom was looking up to his trainer without the enthusiasm he had displayed before. He stood still now with his tail drooping slightly, and briefly pled his case. "Luluum. Brel!" At this, he backed up and threw a few impressively quick punches into the air.

"Oh, I get it. You haven't had a good battle in a while, huh?" he asked, sympathizing with Breloom. "I'm gonna find us a strong trainer soon. You wanna wipe the floor with a dragonite?" Karick, now kneeling down to Breloom's level, held up his fists to execute his point. His pokémon did the same in response, starting to hop in place again.

"I'll have you spar with someone in a bit, but I need you to hang tight for now, alright? Return."

Although Breloom lacked a full understanding of the human's language, he still picked up on the meaning of words that the human used often, and before returning to his pokéball, nodded and lightly punched his trainer's fist.

Karick stood up and turned around to face Tavis.

"Easy enough. Now let's get outside before we pass out from the spore powder."

i-i-i-i-i

Jicordio, located in the south of Ayun's mainland, was a fairly densely populated city. Other than a stopping point between two other towns, it didn't hold much interest from a trainer's point of view. It was only at this time of the year, when starter pokémon were given out, that the city saw much activity from them.

This yearly influx of visitors wasn't as beneficial to the economy as one might have expected, as these short-term tourists generally lacked money to waste on souvenirs, and a place to store those kinds of things. To top that off, they were children. Tavis supposed that was the reason he had received scornful looks from several locals that morning, between the pokémon center and the high school gymnasium in which the starter giveaway was set up.

There were three stations placed in the building, the interior of which gave Tavis unpleasant flashbacks to his old school. He had arrived shortly after nine, and was presently thankful that he had; not long after he had taken his place in line the place suddenly became packed and noisy, made even worse between the high ceiling and tile floors.

A few other kids, fortunate enough to be open to the idea of traveling buddies stood alongside their designated partners in line (perhaps they had already known each other?). Quite a few others apparently found a required escort rather humiliating, as was the case with Tavis, who had agreed with Karick that he could sit this out. He had only needed to be present for Tavis to be given his trainer's card and the smart card used for keeping his own information in his pokédex.

Karick was presently in a set of bleachers on the far side of the room, chatting with another boy who might've been thirteen or so. Tavis looked his way frequently, and would every so often catch the two erupting into laughter. He found himself worrying about the subject of their conversation, as he could well imagine Karick telling all about what a pain he had been over the farfetch'd that was now illegally concealed in his pocket.

It took about fifteen minutes for the line in front of him to disappear, during which time he had witnessed some embarrassing displays from trainers celebrating their newly obtained pokémon. The idiot who had been in front of him tossed his new pokéball through a basketball hoop as he left, and probably against his plan to catch it by hand, the ball hit the floor and released a squirtle. After he hastily recalled it, the boy was then ushered out roughly by security personnel, as it had been made quite clear that pokémon were not to be released within the building to prevent any badly placed battles.

But finally, it was his turn. Tavis assessed the machine before him, a large computer that resembled an ATM, but the display on the monitor led him to believe that this model was older than he was. The white text against the flat, blue background on the screen read "Transfer complete. Thank you," initially, then reverted to the first step of instructions.

"Please insert your Trainer's Card into the slot below." A giant arrow on the bottom right of the screen pointed downward at said slot, flashing in a way that suggested people who had used this machine previously had trouble locating it. Tavis took his card out of his pocket, fed it into the machine and waited for a moment until the monitor showed his information: name, age, ID number, home address, and in larger letters beneath that, "No registered pokémon. To receive torchic. Is this information correct? Y/N"

Below the monitor in the center were two grey buttons, one reading No and the other Yes, the latter surrounded by a bright pink sticker that reiterated the button's answer in bold, capital, hand-written letters. Did people really have that much trouble finding those things? That was probably why it had taken so long to reach the front of the line. Nonetheless, he pressed it.

"Please wait..."

The computer spat out his card, which he pocketed again as a mass of machinery to the left hummed lightly. Then, a white pokéball with a red rim around the middle popped out of a tube and clattered unceremoniously into a metal tray. The screen before him again read, "Transfer complete. Thank you."

Well that couldn't have been any less exciting. It seemed odd to just pick up the ball and go on his way. Tavis exited the line with it before the next person could shove him away; this didn't really allow much time for him to let it sink in. He started weaving through the crowd of stragglers, heading in Karick's direction so that they could get out of there. Then he suddenly felt it, what had made the other kids he had seen hollering in excitement once they had been given their own Pokémon. In his hand was the first of many pokémon he'd train; the key to a new, different and very welcome life. He had his starter.

Then he was stopped.

"Hey, which pokémon did you get?" A girl with long brown hair, probably a rookie trainer like Tavis was, stepped in front of him. By the time he raised his head to meet her, she was no longer looking back at him, but her green eyes were set on the hand in which he clutched the pokéball.

"Torchic," he answered. He thought about returning the question, not out of politeness so much as trying to keep the sure-to-become-awkward encounter normal and unmemorable. Then he caught himself, trying to make sense of the sad, pathetic little expression he was met with when she looked at him again.

The girl wasted no time in getting to her point. "Oh, wow, I've always wanted a torchic!" She turned her head then, facing the ground. "But, I was so busy when we had to register for them, by the time I got to, all the torchic were taken..." she trailed off weakly, and stood in silence briefly before glancing back up to Tavis.

What did she want him to say? "Um, I'm sorry," was all he could come up with. Hopefully, he thought, that was all she would be looking for.

It wasn't. She dramatically clasped both hands together against her chest, as she leaned forward with her eyes wide. "Won't you pleeease trade with me?"

Tavis had worried that the conversation would end up here, but didn't actually believe it would happen. It took him several seconds to be able to use his voice again, but all he could do was stutter. "Well, uh, I-"

Say NO, he thought. Tell her no, she can probably find someone else who will do it. It would be a challenge to make that happen, however; He expected the girl in front of him to start crying at any second. What if she couldn't find someone else?

And why did he deserve a torchic more than she did? It was only recently that he had decided that was the one he wanted, and she seemed to have had her heart set on one for a long time. He just happened to get there first.

"Alright," he sighed before he knew what he was doing. His chest stung when he realized that he had really just agreed to cooperate.

His ears stung immediately after that; The girl squealed in much the same way as another one he had watched receive her treecko earlier, then she leapt up and wrapped her arms around him tightly, making him tense up.

"Thankyou thankyou thankyou!" she cried before releasing Tavis and allowing him to breathe again. "There's a trading machine over there, wanna do it now?" She was holding onto his shirt sleeve now, lightly tugging him in the direction of the double PC in the opposite corner of the gymnasium, which told him yes, they were gonna do it now. He followed her lead through the crowd, desperately waving at Karick as he passed the bleachers, but the teen was still heavily engaged in chatter. There went hope for a way out.

The two approached the trading PC, which had been set up in this room for situations like this one. Well, not entirely like this one, Tavis thought. Usually both trainers involved wanted to take part. He had learned how trading worked in school, but that had been a while ago, and he was somewhat rusty on the process now. He only stood and watched as the girl navigated through a few menus on a touch-screen, and slid her Trainer's Card through the front of the computer tower. She covered the keypad with one hand while typing in a password with the other. From a new window that popped up, she selected the trade icon. Tavis copied what the girl had just done.

It then occurred to him that he had no idea what Pokémon he was about to get - he wasn't even sure it was one of the starters, this girl could very well have been conning him in exchange for a rattata or something.

"Hullooo? Put your pokéball in the machine."

He almost asked what she was trading over before he glanced at her monitor and saw that pokémon's data. It was, in fact, a regular starter - one of the fifty or so that he had wanted when he was little, actually - and scolded himself for having been so suspicious. He looked his pokéball over one last time before hesitantly placing it into a round indent on his side of the machine. This activated a sensor, whether it was weight or motion Tavis couldn't remember, but a tube situated above it quickly sucked up the sphere.

In a few seconds, torchic's data appeared on the screen in front of him, then next to it, the data of the other pokémon. Torchic looked so much better, he thought, before shoving that out of his head. He was in too far now, there was no point in making it harder. Beneath the two windows on the screen he now saw a confirmation prompt, and pressed "accept."

His chest stung again, and his stomach tightened. He had done it without even thinking. Acting like that never brought good results.

Tavis could hear the inner mechanics start up, and in a short time, his monitor displayed silhouetted images of both pokémon moving across the screen, passing each other in the center. After both had reached the other side, the pokéballs tumbled out of the tube and into the metal trays. Or his did, at least; the girl had caught hers in her hand before it landed, and almost immediately turned around.

She looked to Tavis one last time as he picked up his ball. "Bye, and thanks again," she said before jogging toward the doors, just short of a run. She must've really been eager to meet her torchic, Tavis thought, not without a touch of bitterness. He looked at the pokéball again. This was wrong, but it was done. He made his way toward the bleachers to find Karick again, only to meet him halfway.

"Hey, you're done?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

i-i-i-i-i

Upon reaching his room in the pokémon center, Tavis locked the door and collapsed onto his bed. To be alone again was bliss. Just being inside that gymnasium with the hundreds of other kids seemed to have drained him, but he couldn't relax once he had left; Karick had started by suggesting that he let his starter out of the ball like all the other kids were doing just outside the building, but Tavis explained that he'd rather do that at the pokémon center, where there weren't so many distractions.

He hadn't said much else during the walk back, except in response to Karick's repeated questioning about what was bugging him, he should be happy, first pokémon, blah blah blah. Eventually Tavis told Karick that he was just tired. He never knew why it was, but that line always worked when he wanted someone off his back.

During that time, however, he had begun to convince himself that he hadn't exactly done anything bad. He pinpointed the intense guilt on feeling like he had betrayed Torchic, after such a long time of telling himself that trading wasn't right and he'd never do it. But that wasn't exactly the case. He and the torchic had never actually met one another, and that girl - he never caught her name, did he? - probably hadn't even sent her starter out.

No, his starter, he reminded himself. He pulled himself up and reached into his pocket, taking out both pokéballs, and set the pro-tem on the nightstand. As much as he would have liked to have Arree out again, he was sticking to his original plan, to get acquainted with his new pokémon without disturbance. He took a seat on the floor with his legs crossed, briefly studied the premier ball as he maximized it, and dropped it onto the floor, releasing the pokémon.

At first, the only thing he saw odd about it was the way it was sitting, curled up slightly and facing the floor, but watching Tavis out of the corner of its eye. He also realized then that it looked smaller than he thought it should have; yes, he was sure of it, the others he had seen with their trainers outside the gym were bigger than this one. And it might have been the room's lighting, but this one's scales seemed a little dark, an indication that it was unhealthy or just unhappy.

But it probably wasn't related to its health, Tavis noted. The flame on the tip of its tail was burning brightly, a sign of high energy for a charmander.

It was scared. Why? The other starters he had seen all had an air of confidence about them. To Tavis's understanding, the pokémon that were given out all had some level of training in obedience, to make it easier for new trainers to handle them. Maybe it was just nervous.

"Hi, Charmander," Tavis spoke softly to it, seeing if that wouldn't calm it down. "I'm Tavis. I'm your friend. See?" He lifted his hand from his lap and brought it slowly to the charmander. It was no less than a foot away before the lizard's eyes widened and it backed up, poised stiffly on all fours and starting to make a low growling sound.

"It's okay," he said, trying his best to sound reassuring. Although he was aware that that wasn't one of his strong points, he was still taken by surprise when the charmander whirled around and darted clumsily underneath the bed. Tavis ducked under it, finding that it was easy to spot; its tailflame lit up its face, gleaming in its frightened blue eyes.

He almost reached out again, then admitted that it would be useless. Something was very wrong about this. He sat up and thought about it for a moment, then picked the Pokéball up again and aimed it at the charmander. "Return," he said. A red beam of light shot out of the button, and upon contact with the pokémon, it was sucked back into the ball. He leaned against the bed and looked at it again, suddenly getting the feeling that the girl from before hadn't really wanted a torchic so badly.

i-i-i-i-i

Arree remained in the pro-tem ball still. Tavis had decided not to make the transfer to a regular pokeball just yet, as his sudden appearance in Tavis's pokémon registry could complicate things, and while he worried that he had somehow been left in there for too long, he continually reminded himself that Arree was just fine. He kept the ball in his pocket though, as he left his room. He was again in the hallways of the pokémon center, now becoming quite used to the place's setup. It was a shame that he wouldn't be around here too much longer. Probably.

"Tavis!" he heard someone call from behind, knowing full well who it was before he turned around. Karick approached him quickly. "I was looking for you. Think you're gonna be ready to leave soon? I figure we can still get to Saniranes by dark."

"Oh, right. Um, I don't know when I'll be ready. I have kind of a problem..." Tavis held up the pokéball.

"Really? What's up?"

He shrugged. "Don't know, actually. My charmander's acting weird, I was gonna go ask one of the nurses here about it."

"Charmander? Didn't you say you were getting a torchic?"

He had told Karick that, he remembered sorely, on the way to the starter giveaway. "I traded it," he said before he could shut himself up. The whole story was embarrassing, but with any luck, Karick wouldn't push it further.

"Why'd you trade it? I thought you were going to be a bird trainer or something."

He had told Karick that, too. Maybe it would be a better idea to avoid talking about himself in the future, Tavis thought, grinding his teeth. "Charizard flies. Now I-"

"And you made it pretty clear that it was birds and not flying-types..."

"Just never mind!" Tavis barked. "You're giving me a headache. I'm going to go see what's wrong with him, I'll get back to you in like fifteen minutes." He didn't get more than a few steps past Karick before being stopped by him again.

"Bet I can save you the trip."

Grudgingly, Tavis turned back to Karick. Something in the older trainer's voice said there wasn't going to be an ounce of sincerity in what he was about to say. And something in the grin he was trying to fight agreed. "What," he growled, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"It's easy. You're cursed and its spreading to your pokémon." Tavis only met that with a stare, which Karick stupidly took as a cue to continue. "I mean, they say that pokémon grow to reflect their trainers. Arree's a good example, don'tcha think?" he chuckled.

Tavis didn't even try to come up with a retort for that. All he could get out after a few seconds was, "you son of a..." Then he turned on his heel, leaving the rest of that thought up to Karick's imagination. After speaking with someone about the charmander, , he was going to make a complaint about Karick. He couldn't put up with this for three weeks, he just couldn't.

"Whoa, whoa." Karick circled around and cut him off before he got too much distance. Tavis didn't even look at him while he tried to pass, but Karick sidestepped and again blocked his path. "Sorry, alright? Shouldn't have gone that far," he surrendered. Tavis nearly told him to buzz off, but Karick was faster. "Look, I guess I'm just excited about this, you know? I'm sorry."

Tavis thought about it for a second, then sighed. Okay, so he had overreacted a little. "Nevermind it. How about I meet you at your room when I know what's going on?"

"Deal. I have some stuff to repack anyway. Seeya then," Karick waved, and the two went on their own ways.

Until Tavis remembered that they'd probably want his identification and stopped short. He patted his right side pocket, retrieved his silver-colored Pokédex and stuck his hand inside, then turned back and followed Karick's path. "Shoot. I think I left my trainer's card in my room."

Karick kept walking and called over his shoulder, "they can get your ID from your Pokédex."

"I know, but I didn't really look into how to use the smart card thing."

"Easy," Karick said as he came to a halt. "You got it on you?"

"I don't think... oh, wait." Tavis had put the fragile card into a smaller pocket for protection. That hadn't been his best idea, evidently, as he had forgotten about it until then.

Karick took the Pokédex and flipped it around, looking at the back. "Ah, the good ol' brick model. I remember these. From three years ago." There was a panel on the bottom half that Tavis might not have found on his own, which Karick opened. "You know the new ones have a voice recorder? Card goes here."

Tavis dropped the memory card in Karick's extended hand and watched him snap it into place, replace the back panel, and open it up to inspect the screen. "And you are all set," he said - while still holding the device in front of his own face and pressing buttons. Tavis let him do this for a few moments before realizing with a start what Karick was probably waiting for.

"Thank you," he said, thoroughly embarrassed.

"No problem."

Karick tapped another button and continued reading what was on the screen.

"... Can I have it back?" Tavis requested sheepishly.

"No, I'm not done rooting through your personal info yet. Hey, this says you're eleven," he read, raising the Pokédex a foot to dodge Tavis's hand. "I thought you were ten."

"Well I'm not, so give it back," Tavis reached for it and missed once more when Karick turned around.

"Don't flip out, there's not even anything interesting in here. Ooh, you're 4'11, just wait 'til your mom... Calandra finds out." Karick beamed at the opportunity to further torture Tavis, who at this point conceded defeat and stood scowling with his arms at his sides. "And you only have Charmander registered. Does that mean Arree's still..." He suddenly went quiet and fixed his eyes on the Pokédex for a few seconds. "Dude, how'd you get your hands on a female charmander?"

"I- what?"

"It says here your charmander's a girl. Is that why you traded?"

Tavis made another grab at his Pokédex, and was surprised when Karick didn't resist. In his charmander's information page, right next to the species name, was the symbol for a female.

"I didn't even know," he stated in disbelief.

Unless it was an error of some sort, this was an extremely unlikely find; It was common knowledge that, because of the naturally low ratio of female starters to males, only males were given out publicly. While obtaining a female privately was possible, they didn't come cheap.

But, if that was the case for the girl who had Charmander before, why would she so readily give her up, just because of the odd behavior?

"I dunno," he answered himself aloud, shaking his head. "I'm just going to find someone to talk to. I should be back soon."

With that, he headed toward the elevators while Karick made his way back to his room. The metal doors came into sight once he rounded the corner. The pokémon center's medical care unit was mostly situated on the first and second floors; It had a separate lobby on the first floor which Tavis had not yet ventured into, but figured that it couldn't be that difficult to find a nurse. He wondered if it would take much longer than he expected.

But this recent development made him question as well, what if they found that Tavis shouldn't have gotten a female starter? What if they thought that he had stolen her or something? Or that the way she was acting was caused by mistreatment on his part?

He sighed, studying the elevator before him for a good while.

i-i-i-i-i

So much for the rain they predicted today, Tavis thought, looking into the clear blue sky overhead. There was barely a cloud above the city and the sun shone brightly, and although it had gotten significantly hotter as the morning progressed, the breeze flowed and the air was drier than it was in Zephyr. It was still a welcome change from the kind of muggy late-spring days he had grown used to.

Saniranes, in the east, was their next stop, an eight-to-ten-hour trip according to Karick. They were no more than thirty minutes into that, still walking along the right side of the highway, but now passing very few buildings and a natural horizon could be seen on either side. It was only a matter of time before Karick would ask how the visit to the medical center went, and in fact Tavis was surprised that it hadn't happened already.

"So," Karick finally started, to break the silence between them, "what is going on with your charmander?"

Even through coming to the conclusion that Karick could read minds, Tavis was at least thankful that the question had been worded that way. He'd just have to pick his own words carefully.

"She'll be fine, I'll just have to be patient with her. I'll take her out and have Arree meet her, once we get away from the road," he said as a car zoomed by to punctuate his sentence.

He'd transfer Arree to one of his own pokéballs then, too. That wouldn't be too hard, if he was still sleeping once he was sent out. Arree was still officially registered to Karick, Tavis realized again.

"Hey, Karick? I don't think I thanked you this morning, for helping out with Arree. So, uh... thanks," he shrugged.

Karick snapped his fingers. "That reminds me, we need to discuss payment. You owe me twenty bucks."

Tavis came to a stop again, then sped up to meet Karick's pace again. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Nah," Karick shook his head. "I charge interest by the minute. You're gonna be payin' this off for a long time." Tavis snorted again.

The road soon curved to the left, and a wooden sign pointing straight east broke off their path.

i-i-i-i-i

_Chapter three is complete already, expect it probably monday at the latest._


	3. Chapter 3

Between the high sun and the heated ground, the first thing Arree felt upon awakening was warmth.

_Outside._

_... Alone?_

The sobering thought brought him to his feet. With his eyes wide but still blurry, he whirled around, until he faced a familiar human on the ground near him. Tavis was there, resting with his legs folded underneath him.

Tavis was with him, it was safe. But just for good measure, he hopped into the human's lap, and was then greeted with a scratch on the neck.

Now that his heart was slowing, he considered his surroundings. They were in a wooded area, under a sunlit patch of ground that broke through sparse branches of a kind of tree he wasn't familiar with. The ground below was covered in dead, fallen leaves, with scraggly little plants growing mainly around the trees' thin trunks. Everything was so much brighter than the woods he was used to, but it was all... brown. Dry. Arree knew that Tavis had him away from home but as for why on earth he did, he had no idea, and again found no answer when he sent Tavis a questioning look. No place they had ever visited was quite like this one. When were they going back home?

"Arree," the human said finally, pointing his arm in the other direction. Arree had to turn around to see what Tavis was pointing to, and jumped when he met the eyes of a small orange pokémon, huddled under a shallow rise in the earth not five feet away. He gave a quiet hiss, then Tavis returned his hand to Arree's neck and scratched him gently while sayng "sokay." Which Arree knew was wrong, they were in a strange place and a weird ugly orange thing was staring at him. Tavis was either lying or blind, but _sokay_ did not apply here.

Then he was lifted up, set back on the ground, and prodded lightly in the direction of the orange thing. Of course, Arree resisted. Why was Tavis acting like this?

Tavis said something to him. He couldn't understand it exactly, however; Humans made too many sounds. But he had said it softly, and Arree couldn't detect fear or warning in his voice. Arree finally broke his gaze with the foreign pokémon to look up at Tavis again. The idiot was smiling, and motioned back toward the other pokémon with his hand, repeating a part of what he had just said.

Arree heard something else then, a sort of choked whine. Turning back to the pokémon, he saw that it had curled up more tightly and now appeared to be shivering.

So it was scared or hurt... and Tavis just wanted Arree to… what, make it better? That was the only sense he could make out of this... as little sense as that made. The creature was maybe two thirds his own size, Arree noted when he studied it more carefully.

He took a step toward it. Was this _really_ what Tavis wanted him to do? A glance back to the human, who nodded, answered that. Arree groaned and took one more careful step, then another, readying his wings in case he needed to use them. _He had better get me home after this,_ he thought.

The pokémon, eyes locked with his as he approached, ducked down and tried to flatten itself against the side of the dirt wall. Once it reached that point. Arree decided that he was close enough

What now? He didn't know how to address the reptile before him, or even know what it was. He only remained still, the silence between them only broken by the occasional hiccup from the smaller one. At least it wasn't interested in attacking.

"Uh, hi... Stop crying?" he told the lizard. It remained still for the following minute, not convinced that it had any reason to do so. There was only one other way he could think of that could calm it down.

He set his stick on the ground. "You can hold onto this," he said to the other pokémon. "It makes you feel better. But don't hurt it." Of course, Arree didn't care much what happened to _that_ thing; as a matter of fact, if the lizard destroyed it Tavis would have to let him find another one by himself. He had lost his last one not long ago, and afterward Tavis had presented him with this weird new stick that probably hadn't even come from a plant, and wouldn't let him keep any new ones he had selected.

Arree stood there for a moment, then nudged the stick forward along the ground before stepping back to where he was before.

Before long, the pokémon looked down at it. Then back to Arree, past him to Tavis, and Arree again, before finally skulking her way toward the stick and cautiously placing both tiny, clawed paws on it. She held that position for a while before letting go of it and backing up. "It's not working," she sighed.

Arree grudgingly retrieved the stick and tucked it back under his wing. He'd just try to bury it the next time he found a better one.

"So what's wrong? Hate to tell you this, but if you're lost I can't be much help. I'm trying to get _out_ of this place," Arree said.

She looked up at him through large blue eyes, and between sniffles, replied desperately, "Do you know where my mom is?"

"Your… mom? You mean someone else like you?" Arree asked, again looking over the creature and taking his chances moving just a little closer. She didn't react that time. Well, he had done something right, but was for the moment at a loss for how to keep it going. "I've never seen another one of… what are you, anyway?"

"Charmander. My mom's got a fire on her tail like I do," the lizard said, and showed her tailflame to the Farfetch'd, making him nearly back up in surprise. "And she's _really_ big." She momentarily shifted her weight to her back legs to spread her arms out for emphasis. Then she let herself fall forward again. "Bigger. Do you know her?"

Arree struggled to picture any other pokémon he had met with that description, but came up short. Big and orange… the only image he could come up with was a buizel, which wasn't much of a match otherwise. It was a furred, aquatic creature, and for obvious reasons would have trouble keeping a fire on either of its tails.

But in this place, who knew what kinds of pokémon were around? That was a chilling thought at first, but then he realized that her mother wasn't necessarily that far away; she looked, and acted, young, and had probably been too panicked to think of retracing her path. "Well, where were you when you saw her last?"

"The… white flat place. I don't know where it is, I left them and I wanted to go back but I saw humans and then it was gone, and I can't—" Her voice had become loud before she choked and stopped, sobbing again and curling up with her face in the ground.

"Hold on, hold on!" Arree looked around frantically again, and back to Tavis for just a second before getting an idea. A white flat place… probably the inside of a building. Tavis could get him out of this after all.

He got close to the charmander again, gently (and hesitantly) brushing his wing against her side, but taking care to avoid that strange flame on her tail. "Look, if she's in a building somewhere, my friend can help."

The charmander looked up at him again, hopefully. "Your friend?"

He nodded, and pointed with his stick in the direction of Tavis. "He's my friend. Your mom's in a building somewhere, right? I know a lot about humans, and I know that buildings are where they live. Maybe mine can help find the one you're looking for."

She didn't look entirely convinced; Arree guessed by her frequent glances toward Tavis that her skepticism wasn't toward the plan as much as it was toward the human.

"Don't worry, he's safe," Arree told her. "I've known him all my life, and I can get him to help out. He's nice. Except when he takes away all the good sticks I find and stuffs me under a bed..."

Then he reminded himself that he was trying to get her to trust Tavis so that he could take care of the whole thing. _Oh, that didn't help at all. Fix it quick._

"But, I'll stick by you and make sure he doesn't do that."

The charmander's chest visibly inflated at his words, and Arree immediately second-guessed himself. He had gotten her to stop crying, which had been his immediate goal, but now he had gotten himself into something he didn't know if he could do. Great, he thought, just how was he going to keep that promise?

Well, by doing exactly what he had planned to. He'd get Tavis to help. Which left him with just one thing to figure out: how to explain his problem to Tavis.

And if he had traded a feather to resolve every instance of that problem, he'd be a bald bird.

"You're... you're really gonna help me? You'll stay with me?" The charmander's voice was still broken and shaky, but darn it, there was so much hope in it. It would betray his selfless nature to back out now.

Plus, once he figured out how to make it happen, Tavis would be doing most of the work.

"Absolutely, Charmander. You have nothing to worry about while Arree's around."

He'd later wonder what exactly he had been planning to do next, because he never got the chance to act on it. A loud roar sounded in the distance, likely having come from a large pokémon, and he barely had a moment to look for its source before at least three brown, round-bodied pokémon with long tails crashed through the undergrowth and barreled right through the area.

He squawked and instinctively beat his wings in a desperate attempt to get airborne, a task which seemed to have become more difficult as of late. The last thing he saw was Tavis standing up, yelling his name, and holding a small, spherical object aimed toward his direction.

Tavis returned both pokéballs to his belt. His charmander was used to being recalled like that, but he was amazed that Arree hadn't resisted being called into it for the first time while fully conscious. The act was starting to feel kind of brash, but he had to calm the chaos quickly. He had strayed from the main path to avoid other trainers that might be coming that way, and while he expected to see wild pokémon in the area, he hadn't been ready for the group of scared sentret charging through.

He stood up quickly and turned toward the direction of the path, which he had not walked far from; when Tavis had told Karick that he was going to stop for a while, sticking to his plan of trying his luck with Jasper again once they were in a calmer area (and for a quick rest), Karick had said that he'd go a little further down the path and would wait for Tavis to catch up. The noise had come from that direction.

Curiosity getting the better of him, and all hopes of calming his pokémon dashed to pieces, he picked up his things and followed it, just in time to hear another strange roar.

As it turned out, Karick hadn't gotten that much farther ahead, Tavis discovered when he reached a wide, sunny clearing. But the first thing he noticed upon arriving wasn't Karick.

It was his breloom, who was engaged in a battle with a fully grown magmar. Karick stood at a distance, his body tense and his eyes sharply focused on the two pokémon.

As far as Tavis could see, there wasn't another trainer around who could be commanding the magmar, and he stepped out of sight quickly when he realized what that might have meant. It couldn't be wild, he would have definitely remembered if magmar lived in this area. Could it be a released pokémon, or one that was trained and had simply gone off on its own, then challenged or tried to attack Karick? In that case, Breloom might have been in over its head...

But if that was true, why would Karick have sent out the grass-type, who also had a clear disadvantage in height and weight, when he had Plemort? And hadn't he mentioned a rhydon?

The magmar lunged toward Breloom, swinging one of its powerful arms in a punch that landed firmly near Breloom's jaw, the force nearly sending him backward. But he skillfully caught himself by using his tail like a third leg, then aimed a sharp kick straight toward the magmar's chest.

The magmar's attempt to weave out of the way came a split second too late; Breloom's foot hit its shoulder, hard, and managed to knock the fire pokémon off balance. Its tail swung out from behind it as it tried to catch itself, and the flame on the end of it swept only inches away from Breloom's face. The grass-type, startled, leapt backwards... and yelled at the magmar.

And the magmar uttered something in response, brushing dust off its body before dismissively waving a clawed hand toward Breloom.

"Alright, guys, just take a break," Karick said from the sidelines. He knew the magmar?

Tavis vaguely remembered Karick's promise to arrange a battle for Breloom earlier that morning. ... Oh. Duh. Karick was its trainer, too.

"Hey, Tavis!" Karick called, having finally spotted him. "That was quick."

"Yeah, it was-" he started to yell, then simply walked over to Karick. No point in having a conversation across a fifty-foot gap. All that had done was attract attention from the two resting pokémon, and judging by fluttering in the trees, further annoy the wild pokémon. "It was going okay, then something scared Arree, and he scared Jasper and I had to recall them both."

"Jasper? Your charmander?"

Tavis nodded.

"Like the rock? That's a pretty good name, they're about the same color."

"Thanks, that's... what I was thinking."

"Oh, it's original, creative, has a nice ring to it... you really have a talent for picking names, kid." Karick's suspicious smirk and exaggerated tone finally tipped him off that he was being sarcastic.

"Okay, what's your point?"

"It's a dude's name."

"Shut up! I still think it fits. It doesn't even sound that masculine." _It sounds pretty_, he thought, but decided to keep that to himself rather than have Karick laugh at him for their three weeks together. He still liked it and he'd gauge other opinions before he'd really consider changing it. For now he was going to steer the discussion away from that territory. "Where'd the magmar come from?"

"Route 1012. He's mine too," Karick announced proudly. "He and Breloom practice their close-range fighting against each other a lot. No special attacks allowed, or Breloom wouldn't have a chance. Magmar's _usually_ good about keeping his tail out of the way..."

That at least explained Karick's lack of commands to either of the battlers. "Does Breloom ever win?"

"Oh, yeah. Breloom's been at it a lot longer. He did a lot of training with Magmar when he first joined the team, and now he's pretty serious about keeping up his status."

That much was evident; Breloom was still up and pestering Magmar, eager to continue, while the fire pokémon was still trying to take advantage of the break.

"I just got a crazy-genius idea. Let your charmander out to watch them," Karick suggested.

"Uh, I don't think that'll work. She just now got scared by Arree trying to fly, and that's usually more funny than scary."

"This'll be different. If you keep her far away I think it'll be alright."

"But why do that in the first place?" he asked, although he was already starting to get the idea.

Karick shrugged. "Tap into her battling instinct? I know starters are trained a little bit for battle, but if she watches a real one, I dunno, might give her more confidence."

Tavis had arrived at the same conclusion, but the theory felt a little more solid once Karick explained it. And if she was startled, Tavis would be ready to recall her.

If they kept their matches close-ranged, no projectile attacks as Karick had said, there wasn't a lot of risk involved. And, he had to admit, Karick did have a lot more experience at this type of thing...

"I guess it's worth a try."

Karick had instructed his pokémon to "take it easy" this time around, keeping in mind both Jasper's presence and their previous incident. Evidently they got the point. Magmar restrained himself from his usual battle-opening trademark, belching a huge plume of flames into the air, which Karick had guessed triggered the sentret stampede.

Breloom rammed his head square into Magmar's chest, knocking him into the ground. Just before Breloom pounced on top of Magmar, the bulky fire-type delivered a swift kick into Breloom's side, sending him off course and rolling onto the grass.

Before he had time to straighten himself, Magmar had already gotten up and threw the weight of his whole body over Breloom, pinning him to end the match. Karick complimented the fight as Breloom stood, shook his head and spat out a mouthful of dirt.

Against his intentions, Tavis had taken interest in the battle as well rather than keeping an eye on Jasper. But when he looked back to her, she hadn't moved from her spot. Tavis noted with surprise that she had been fixated on the battle as well, her eyes wide, with interest rather than fear. Had that really worked?

Jasper got up and, at a slow, cautious pace, stepped toward the two pokémon. She kept a wary eye on Tavis as she crawled forward, keeping her body lowered to the ground almost as if she was trying to stay out of view.

The two didn't notice Jasper as she approached, but as she got closer, Tavis could see that she was more interested in Magmar. That made a lot of sense, he realized; he was another fire pokémon. He even had the flame on his tail, just like any member of a charmander's evolution family. Of course she would have gotten a sense of familiarity from him.

He didn't dare move or make any kind of sound, aside from quickly shushing Karick when he had started to say something. He knew that act was likely to earn him a beating later, but he was not going to risk anything messing this up.

It was Breloom who saw her first, and made Magmar aware that he had a new fan approaching. Magmar turned around and spotted her, too; to the young charmander, he must have been huge and imposing, especially considering that ever-present dour expression that his species permanently wore, regardless of how they happened to be feeling.

Jasper froze in her tracks when she faced him. She couldn't seem to decide what to do; Tavis guessed she wanted to address him but was, understandably, intimidated. Their staring contest seemed to go on forever, until Magmar bent down and said something to her.

She looked down and backed away from him. Tavis looked to Karick, as if he would have known what Magmar had just said. Karick shrugged back at him. Magmar's expression was tough to read, but Tavis got the feeling that he hadn't deliberately tried to deter her. She had simply lost her nerve.

Although Jasper had stopped running from Tavis, which he had sadly considered excellent improvement, she still wouldn't allow him to touch her. Tavis had tried to get her to follow on her own accord, but didn't have much luck there either. He would start to leave, and at first she would look frightened and start toddling around in circles, and would only follow him if he was getting too far away. She wasn't fond of him, but more scared of being left alone, and even when she did follow she had trouble keeping up. If she would walk upright she might not have that problem, but she still insisted on being a quadruped, and it made Tavis wonder if there was something physically wrong with her.

The best approach, and Karick had backed him up on this, was to keep her in the ball for now and let her out during their stops. For now, it was just Arree, perched on Tavis' shoulder. The farfetch'd was learning quickly that he'd have to get used to unfamiliar pokémon. One such pokémon, belonging to Karick, was flying around somewhere and would periodically disappear in the trees, with a strong preference for shade over direct sunlight, as crobat tended to have.

Her name was, indeed, Teeth, as Karick had just assured Tavis for the third time.

"Oh. Uh... okay."

"Don't tell me you think it's a weirder name than Arree."

"Hey, I named him like four years ago," he said defensively. As a seven-year-old he hadn't been terribly creative with nicknames, but at least he wasn't calling the farfetch'd 'Bill.'

"I've had Teeth for longer than that, and I wasn't the one who named her in the first place. I got her in a trade, and yeah, it's a weird name, but it stuck. I've had her the longest out of all my pokémon."

"Really?" Tavis paused, almost certain he remembered Karick talking that morning about when he had first become a trainer and had gone to the starter giveaway, it hadn't been nearly so crowded. Unless the rules about not having a pokémon in order to obtain your starter had changed, that didn't add up. "Was she your starter?"

"Nope," Karick said. "My first was Bulbasaur. He was the one I traded for her."

"Why would you trade your bulbasaur away?" He lowered his voice as he said this, as if the crobat would understand his words and take offense. He wasn't trying to insinuate that her species was weak - from what he knew, crobat were among the fastest of the flying-types and were skilled in a wide range of abilities. What he found more absurd about the trade was how common zubat were all around Ayun, and if Karick had wanted one he could have caught it himself easily, rather than give up his first pokémon for one.

Karick shrugged. "I told you that I knew our gym leader's sister in school, right?" Tavis thought he had mentioned that, maybe the night before. "She's the one I traded with. Teeth was a golbat at the time anyway, it wasn't like a lot of other new trainers had those." Karick looked up, trying to spot his pokémon. "Might have been a dumb idea at the time, but I don't regret it. She's awesome, all my other pokémon respect her, and she's saved my life a couple times."

Tavis could kind of see where he was coming from. But still, he couldn't help sensing that Karick was almost trying to divert the conversation away from his bulbasaur. He wondered briefly if something had gone wrong between them, if they hadn't gotten along...

And Tavis wouldn't give up so easily on Jasper, he knew, and now had more of a reason not to.

"When's your birthday?" Karick asked out of the blue, during yet another break Tavis had insisted on.

Tavis had finally been persuaded into taking off the black, long-sleeved shirt he had been wearing under a plain green tee, and immediately felt better when he did so. He pulled his head through the green one again as he replaced it before turning back to Karick and asking, "Why?"

Karick shrugged. "Most kids get their starters when they're ten. Just wonderin' if it was recent."

Ugh. This was moving into dangerous territory. It says something that Tavis considered lying about his age then, but he knew that Karick had seen it on his record. He shook his head toward Karick. "It's in November." About half a year ago.

"So why'd you wait around another year to leave? Were you still in school?"

Tavis just shook his head again, straightening his shirt more unnecessarily. "Just that online stuff." Since he had gotten through fifth grade the year before, he had been in the same abbreviated online-based classes that just about every traveling trainer was in, had taken the same proctored tests every two months. The only difference was that he hadn't been a trainer then.

"So why wait around an extra year?" Karick asked again, and Tavis could see him turning it over in his head. There was no real advantage to waiting, and as he had been told several million times, _the other eleven-year-olds will demolish you in a battle_. If he was enrolled in that program from the start, obviously he had intended to become a trainer that year.

The deduction from that was obvious, too; he'd gotten scared, and it wasn't something he liked admitting, but he could see in Karick's face that he knew it too. He cringed inwardly, hating the thought of being seen as too much of a baby to leave home on a pokémon journey, especially since that hadn't exactly been the case; he had been more than eager to be on his own for a while now. _Ugh._ The best thing he could do now was to block that thought before it had set into Karick's mind.

"I saw someone kill a pokémon a little while before I was supposed to leave. Just bugged me. Didn't wanna go out and be a trainer right after that," he said, hoping Karick wouldn't make him elaborate.

That hope was crushed when Karick sat up straight again and leaned forward, eyebrows raised, and asked, "Really? What the heck happened?" At least his tone suggested concern rather than empty interest, Tavis noted. Of course; with the vague description he had offered, Tavis would have wanted to know more, too. He had seen many dead pokémon in his life, he had seen some die, but nothing like that would leave anyone afraid to leave the house alone for months afterward. He honestly couldn't blame Karick for asking.

It didn't look like there was a comfortable way out of explaining further. But since he thought about it, the whole story would be less embarrassing than part of it.

"I was in the woods near my house, and I saw this guy and a butterfree chasing after a houndour. I just hid so that I could watch - I thought they were just trying to catch it, you know? Well, the butterfree got it with a sleep powder, and once the guy caught up, he got down to look at it, and it sort of jumped, and, uh... he just shot it, in the head."

Karick was silent for a few moments before he settled on something to say about it. "God, that's… harsh."

And the subject was dropped. At least discussion of it was. Tavis never liked reliving the incident; even though it didn't particularly scare him anymore, and he wondered why it had just a year ago, the sound of the gun firing, and the image of the houndour's body afterward was burned into his mind.

He never understood why it had happened, either. Even after he suddenly told his mother that he didn't want to go out and train, it had taken her weeks to drag the whole story out of him. She had called the police afterward, and after that Tavis never heard anything.

Funny how things would be different now if that hadn't happened. He recalled that back then he had wanted a mudkip for his starter for some reason, and that girl who had conned him out of his torchic this year wouldn't have been around to mess things up. Arree might have been left in Zephyr; it seemed like the farfetch'd had only grown more dependent on him in the past year, when Tavis was at home all the time and the two were always together.

What's more, he would have evaded the whole traveling buddy thing, and right now he wouldn't be faced with the awkward silence between himself and Karick. The older boy was staring at the ground, idly scratching at a patch of dirt with a twig and probably still thinking about the story he had just heard. Tavis desperately wanted a distraction from this.

And he got it. About ten feet behind Karick, Tavis caught a slight movement near the base of a tree. At first, he couldn't tell what made it, but on closer inspection, he saw a small green creature, blending in with the grass as it nosed around the tree's roots.

"Hey, there's a caterpie," he whispered, not taking his eyes off the spot. If the caterpillar pokémon had seen the two, it didn't regard them as a threat. This was perfect; a weak, slow pokémon within easy reach would be a perfect opportunity to try to get in some training for Jasper.

Tavis started to get up very slowly, not about to risk scaring it off, but reminded himself not to take too long or he'd lose it anyway. Jasper's pokéball was in his hand. He selected the best spot to send her out; the best idea would be to trap it against the tree, since it was probably a slower climber than a crawler. So he aimed to the right - then, his attention shifted to Karick, who was watching him rather than the caterpie.

_Darn it, concentrate on the battle_. He threw the ball, and his charmander popped out, materializing less than a foot away from the caterpie. Satisfied with his aim for only an instant, he could soon see Jasper's form fully, still on all fours and looking around innocently.

"Scratch," he called, still uncertain of the situation in spite of Jasper's advantage in type and power.

Jasper glanced back at him, but didn't react otherwise. She turned back to the shaking caterpie and studied it, probably never having seen one before. "Scratch!" Tavis called again, louder. She _had_ to recognize the commands, all starters were trained to. What was that other move charmander were supposed to know at this point? The same one torchic did, right? "Growl?"

He was all too aware of Karick's eyes on him, which was only making this worse.

Jasper still apparently had no idea what to do, or that this was even a battle, was breaking eye contact with it often enough to make it clear that she wasn't exactly threatened by the creature. Still, that didn't last long, as the terrified caterpie was the first to make a move, albeit a hesitant one. It shot a sticky, webby substance straight from its mouth that hit Jasper's arm and stuck to it. The bug unexpectedly threw itself forward before she had time to recover and smacked into Jasper's body.

Tavis took it as a good sign when she swatted at the caterpie with her free arm, but she had been too startled to aim properly, falling backwards when her clumsy swing made her lose balance. It was all she could do to curl her tail around herself and block her face with her arm, defending against the attack she knew would come.

But nothing did. The caterpie, deciding to quit while it was ahead, made a quick getaway by burrowing under the tree's roots.

So ended his first pokémon battle. He sighed through his teeth and put his hand over his forehead. Karick didn't offer a word; it would almost have been better if he had just said what he was thinking and get it over with, but Tavis wasn't sure he wanted to hear it.

He looked up and raised the ball toward his pokémon, and saw that she had scrambled backward away from the tree. Jasper was shivering and scraping her claws together, unsuccessfully trying work free from the caterpie's string shot.

Tavis couldn't do it again. Recalling her when she was in a state like this would do more harm than good. Taking care of Jasper was his responsibility, that was set in stone from the second he made the decision to keep her, and taking care of her meant doing more than confining her to a pokéball when she was in need of help. No more pretending that her problems would go away on their own.

Jasper backed away when Tavis bent down next to her, but at the moment she was more concerned with her claws sticking together than she was with the human. She yelped and pulled backward once he gently took hold of her arm. Tavis remembered a tip on how to work the stuff loose; he scooped up some of the dirt with his other hand and started to rub it against her hands. He hadn't seen before then just how small and stubby her claws were.

It didn't take long before the mixture had become a grayish wad that separated from her scales with ease, and Tavis scraped his own hand against the caterpie's tree to remove what remained.

She sat with her head down, still shaking, and didn't show a reaction when Tavis set his hand next to her body.

"Tavis, I know you don't want to hear this, but..."

"Yeah, I know. I have to get her checked out again." Or for the first time.

Karick stretched when he stood up again. "Well, think you'll be ready to get back on the road soon?" He had the sense not to deliver that with his usual enthusiasm.

"Not yet," Tavis replied. "I want her to calm down a little more before she goes back into the pokéball." And at the moment, he wasn't feeling at his best either.

i-i-i-i-i-i

_These first three chapters have been finished for a while now. This is just to let you know not to expect the next one to show up as quickly._


End file.
